Trash Talkin’ (Recipe: White Trash)

You just don’t know what you can and can’t say anymore. The mere act of opening your mouth and having words come out is subject to offend somebody somewhere at sometime. I’m not talking about stupid and hateful talk. I’m talking about just regular old everyday talk that you say with the best of intentions. Who knows what the rules are any longer? It really doesn’t matter if you know the rules because it seems they change daily.

Remember when single ladies were addressed as Miss? Now we say Ms.

I’m not going any further with examples. You all can come up with plenty of your own. I have no intentions of ill will and don’t want to spur a political firestorm of a debate. The reason I even brought up the subject to begin with is because I thought seriously that I should change the name of this recipe that has been around for ever and a day. It’s one of those that has survived through the years. and no one is even sure when it got started and who should receive credit. It’s been made in millions of kitchens by millions of parents and children and given to millions of teachers, postal workers, next door neighbors, pastors, pharmacists and grocery store baggers as Christmas gifts. But, the name made me stop and think.

Fortunately, good sense won out over political correctness. This recipe is called White Trash because it’s thrown all together in a big ol’ bowl and covered with white chocolate. In no way is a reference to unmotivated Southerners inferred or implied. No way at all.

So, let’s get beyond tossing back and forth about how the name possibly, maybe, might be offensive to a certain group of people.

Mix and match the ingredients to suit your taste and your whim. I prefer unsweetened cereal to sweetened (e.g. Honey Nut Cheerios, Golden Graham) because the saltiness of the mixed nuts and pretzels lends just the right balance to the sweetness of white chocolate and M & Ms yielding the prefect salty/sweet combo that’s palate pleasing. The amount of coating is light enough that each piece of the mix can be identified but is sufficient enough to coat each piece with sweetness.

5 cups regular Cheerios

5 cups Corn Chex

15 ounces premium mixed salted nuts

19 ounces M & Ms (thank you Mars Candy Company for making bags of green and red M & Ms at Christmas!)

2 cups stick pretzels, broken slightly

18 ounces Baker’s Premium White Chocolate baking squares

Throw first 5 ingredients in a big ol’ bowl. You’ll need the bowl that used to mix up your Thanksgiving dressing.

Place white chocolate squares in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave until melted, stirring after every minute. It will take about 5 minutes total.

Pour white chocolate over trash and mix until well coated.

Turn out onto parchment paper and let dry, approximately 30 minutes.

Break into pieces and store or wrap up in cute little packages for gifts.

Thanks Shug!!!!! But, the recipe you had last Christmas had Bugles in it.
It’s not big deal as I can replace the Cheerios and Corn Checks with the Bugles.
Their salty to the M&M sweet just go together like syrup and biscuits. Thanks again <3

Great piece ! Timely as we are having guests over this holiday season, we were looking for something to send them home with and this beats a loaf of home made bread and is very practical ! We will probably personalize each bag…Thank you Jackie….

This would be PERFECT for guest favors! You could easily personalize each package. Send me a picture. I’d love to see it! One of my Syrup and Biscuits friends said she substitutes Bugles for some of the cereal. That’s a great idea, too!

I’ve never made White Trash before but I think I’d love it I don’t think we have Chex cereal here but maybe I can get it from the USA import store for 5 times what it costs in the states. Clever goody bags.

Maureen,
If you can’t find Chex cereal that costs less than one arm and a leg, substitute sturdy salty snacks like Fritos and/or Bugles if they’re available. Another option using a whole bunch of pretzels.

This looks SO yummy! I haven’t done it in a few years but I always use to make white chocolate clusters, or what some people call haystacks, which are salted peanuts and pretzel pieces coated in white chocolate (almond bark works great too.) This makes me think of that.

Whatever it’s called, it sounds delicious! If I may, I’d like to invite you to submit your photos to the new YumGoggle, a photo sharing site with the philosophy that if you worked hard to cook it and photograph it, we should show it off! Hope to see you there soon!http://www.yumgoggle.com/gallery/